I think the concern with the progress is that the country is really divided, and everything is politicized to the extreme (see: COVID). The country should be coming together for solutions, but when you politicize everything, it becomes a matter of keeping power. It becomes really difficult to have a good bi-partisan plan to continue to address systemic issues. And you need that support.
Looking at the GOP, you see a big problem on how they're addressing things. When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the GOP was in a lot trouble at the federal level as well as the state level. Their (combined with news/radio) relentless criticism of Obama and the push for the Tea Party from some of the donors helped turn things around, taking control of the House, more state governorships, and more state legislatures. But a 2012 presidential defeat and a failure to regain the Senate led to an introspection.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/rnc-completes-autopsy-2012-loss-calls-inclusion-policy/story?id=18755809Some snippets:
"We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian, and gay Americans and demonstrate we care about them, too. We must recruit more candidates who come from minority communities. But it is not just tone that counts. Policy always matters."
"Public perception of our party is at record lows," Bradshaw said. "Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents and many minorities think Republicans don't like them or don't want them in our country. When someone rolls their eyes at us they aren't likely to open their ears to us."
Bradshaw added that the GOP "needs to stop talking to itself" and needs to open the tent in order to win presidential elections in the future.
"We have become expert at how to provide ideological information to like-minded people but ,devastatingly, we have lost the ability to be persuasive with or welcoming to those who don't agree with us on every issue," Bradshaw said, noting they need to be "inviting and inspiring."
"Our standard should not be universal purity, it should be a more welcoming form of conservatism," Bradshaw said, bluntly adding that the party "needs to do better with women" and it needs to address the "unique concerns" women voters have.
The theme of inclusion continued with Glenn McColl, a national committeeman from South Carolina who insisted the party seems to some as "intolerant and unaccepting of differing points of view."
"If our party isn't welcoming and inclusive young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out," McColl said. "The party should be proud of its conservative principles but just because someone disagrees with us on 20 percent of the issues does not mean we can't come together on the rest of the issues we do agree on."
Before Priebus unveiled the report, the group, including the committeewoman from Puerto Rico, Zoraida Fonalledas, addressed the crowd of reporters in Spanish and she too stressed the need for a change in tone and for candidates to be compassionate and inclusive.
"If Hispanic Americans hear the GOP doesn't want them in the U.S.A.," Fonelledas said, "they won't pay attention to our next sentence. It doesn't matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy. If Hispanics think we don't want them here, they will close their ears to our policies."
So what did the GOP do? The 2014 elections that gave the GOP the Senate led to the stonewalling of Obama's Senate candidate. Major legislation pieces, including items such as immigration and education (items that Boehner wanted to work on with Obama) were shelved. And the kicker: in the 2016, it put forth a candidate that was literally the antithesis of everything that needed to happen above. Much about the outreach to minorities, women, and young voters was kicked to the curb.
And it worked. The GOP not only won the Presidency but also retained the House and Senate. It also kept its gains at the state level. In 2016, over 60% of states had GOP governors (the numbers have come down to almost 50-50 since) and the GOP had significantly more states where it controlled both the state House and state Senate. It also was able to replace a conservative SC justice and a swing vote SC justice with two more conservative justices.
The GOP pushing a hard, divisive agenda won them basically everything. The negative consequences are starting to roll in in terms of midterm results, but the GOP (up until coronavirus anyway) was well positioned to either continue a Trump presidency in which control of the Senate could mean another justice on the court (if Breyer/Ginsberg step down; or even a replacement of Thomas with a younger conservative) or to stall a Democratic president in 2020 (if the GOP can hold the Senate) and then hope that the 2022 midterms even swing the House back.
To this point, there has not be electoral consequences for the GOP. A landslide in 2016 combined with losses at every level would've forced that introspection to the fore. It would've communicated that the GOP needs to take leadership on issues such as race relations, inequality, etc. That eventually there will be discontent with the Democratic Party, and that the GOP would need to be ready to lead. It would've had to embrace a broader coalition.
Instead, the GOP was completely rewarded even with a candidate and a party approach that went away from those 2012 lessons. There have been very little consequence for the party. Politicizing and pushing a divisive agenda is working. So there's no incentive for the GOP to change their approach and take on leadership in addressing some of these difficult issues. The thing is, no matter how much Biden/your Dem governor/your Dem Senator wants to reform, you need enough support at the appropriate level (local, state, federal, etc). As it stands, you need the GOP to agree to these major changes. If the GOP has been humbled enough to 1) get them to work with you on these issues or 2) be powerless to challenge your changes, then yes you can make sweeping reforms. For example, if the GOP was clearly dominated for years, then it may have to accept that universal healthcare is the way to go (but work with the Dems to get a good vision for everyone) and that, yes, minority rights are still being trampled and must be addressed (and thus even pushing Democrats to get things done to win votes).
Until that point happens, the hardliners have won (see Trump, Donald, McConnell, Mitch, among others). So that's your issue. Politicizing everything is not good for the country, but it worked for the GOP. Now the Democrats basically have to respond in kind. And the country's more divided than ever.
Things ranging from amending the Constitution to reforming the police to implementing more safety nets in disadvantaged communities, etc are almost impossible in today's political environment.
